Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Allakaket, AK

Allakaket is a second-class city in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, on the south bank of the Koyukuk River about 190 miles northwest of Fairbanks and 57 miles upriver from Hughes, with the village of Alatna directly across the river.

The 2020 census counted 177 people in Allakaket, living in 71 households, with a median age of 33.3 years and 84.2 percent of residents Alaska Native.

Allakaket, Koyukon for Aalaa Kkaakk'et, is mainly an Athabascan community, while Kobuk Eskimos live across the river in Alatna, and the two villages maintain separate village councils, with the federally recognized Allakaket Village tribe located in the community.

The first mission on the Koyukuk River, St. John's-in-the-Wilderness Episcopal Mission, was established at Allakaket in 1906, a post office opened in 1925, and the community's name was changed to Allakaket in 1938.

Allakaket was incorporated as a city in 1975, including both the Allakaket and Alatna settlements across the river.

An ice-jam flood inundated 85 percent of Allakaket in the spring of 1964, and in September 1994 flood waters destroyed and swept away nearly all of the community's buildings, homes, and winter food caches, after which residents rebuilt near the old city site and the relocated Alatna portion became a separate census-designated place in 2000.

The sale, importation, and possession of alcohol are banned in Allakaket.

Subsistence provides most of the community's food, with salmon, whitefish, moose, bear, small game, and berries, and traditional potlatches, dances, and foot races attract visitors from area villages.

Allakaket has no road link, but winter snow-machine trails connect it with Hughes, Bettles, and Tanana, the state-owned Allakaket Airport has a 4,000-foot gravel runway, and the town is reached by barge about once a year.

The Yukon-Koyukuk School District operates Allakaket School, and the community also has a health clinic and imposes no real estate taxes.